As fresh as the fish you catch.
It’s not too often that a studio releases an absolute masterpiece right out of the gate. However, that is precisely what Mintrocket has done with their debut title, Dave the Diver. While the game entered into early access last October on Steam, its full release is a charming and wholesome pleasure, a game I simply got lost in, obsessed with its "one more run" structure. Its mixture of restaurant sim and rogue-lite diving exploration always complimented each other, making each component absolutely reliant on the other. And, combine that with a memorable cast of characters, a compelling and touching story, and some wildly addictive gameplay, and you have one of the best games to release this year.
Dave the Diver sees you as the titular Dave as he accepts an opportunity of a lifetime; managing a sushi bar at a private resort outside of a mysterial body of water called the Blue Hole, a practically untouched divers' paradise, especially one that changes its landscape and resources with each dive. While the job certainly leads to more than just a procedural need to collect ingredients for some tasty dishes, or outfitting your place of business with the staff and decor it needs to entice and serve your clientele, Dave the Diver is a game that constantly keeps you on your toes by being adventurous, unpredictable, charming, and wildly imaginative.
From learning the backstories of its wonderful cast to taking part in cooking challenges, and high-speed boat chases to even a stealth sequence that would make Solid Snake proud, I never tired of the fun and engaging ideas presented here, even if they didn’t always progress the story forward. And with how well the game runs on Steam Deck, I could take this adventure with me. While the game only exists on PC for the moment, Dave the Diver will be making an appearance on the Nintendo Switch later this year, reaching even more gamers on the go on a platform that has some very big numbers.
While Dave the Diver does initially start slow with learning the basics about this mysterious paradise, as well as getting you up to speed with your central cast of characters and your reason for being there, it soon dives deep into the murky depths to tell a story about a lost race of fish people whose whole civilization borders on the verge of collapse. While they are initially weary of interaction with humans, given their past, you’ll soon gain their trust and friendship through several side quests, moments, and even take in a sea horse race or two.
Dave the Diver focuses its gameplay across two central pillars; deep sea exploration to gather ingredients and materials as you hunt fish and deal with other hostile threats, and the hustle and bustle of running the island's only sushi bar. There is so much here that will keep you occupied for well over 25-30 hours and beyond. There are mini-games, a Pokemon-like card system, as well as a Tamagotchi fish baby to raise as well as harvesting your own crops as you open up a farm on the island. Dave the Diver constantly offers up new systems, mechanics, and activities that always feel like they are delivered exactly when the game needs something new. And, to much surprise, every system feels fully fleshed out to almost work as a game on its own.
Each day begins with Dave setting up to dive into the Blue Hole. You’ll often have side quests to keep you engaged during a dive to a particular fish or three you’ll need to collect for some sort of cooking competition or event, such as a Jellyfish celebration that I sadly wasn’t prepared for, leaving customers upset and leaving at my apparently lacking menu. You can dive a certain number of times throughout the day before you’ll need to tend to your sushi bar. And eventually, you’ll be able to take on a night dive that will open up the Blue Hole for one last spot of exploration before you turn in for the night, catching some much-deserved rest.
The Blue Hole itself can be explored as much as your equipment will allow. As you earn money and materials, you can use your phone to upgrade your scuba gear to allow you to dive deeper, carry more materials, as well as allowing for more air to keep you alive longer. While you'll often find oxygen canisters and pockets of air as you explore, having more oxygen at the ready is crucial, especially as it also doubles as your health. You’ll also pick up new weapons, healing items, and more as you traverse the Blue Hole, collecting canisters and crates of various shipments that have gotten lost in the sea.
When it comes to combating various fish, pirates, or the more intimidating sea creatures you'll encounter, Dave will have a pretty decent variety of weapons and tools to rely on. From his trusty knife to a harpoon gun, you'll also outfit Dave with sniper rifles and grenade launchers, to hush darts to bring them back in one piece, as guns can reduce the usable material from your catch. And, as you unlock more of the supporting cast, which I'll cover shortly, you can use materials to upgrade your arsenal to provide more damage, status effects, and even set fish on fire. Yup, I mean underwater and everything.
Combat works well enough but is far from the star of the show here. This is mainly due to a limited frame of how you can aim your shot. When you hold A, regardless of it being your harpoon gun or standard weapon, you have a limited range of moving the gun up or down. Had you been able to aim the gun in a full 360-degree motion, I would have zero issues here. This can result in having to readjust your aim if your target moves too close to you. And, since you have to hold A to aim, sometimes they take advantage of that and move in to where you cannot hit them. You can melee strike with your knife, but try doing that to a hammerhead shark and see how well you fare. The variety in weapons and tools does help in some ways, but if I had to knock Dave the Diver for anything, it is that combat is just functional enough to be fun.
Despite the vast array of tools at your disposal, your phone is easily the most effective component of your kit. Apart from crafting and upgrading your weapons and scuba equipment, you’ll have a social media app called Cooksta to keep track of how people interact with your restaurant, as well as a to-do list and phonebook for your allies, as well as simple things like a calendar, calculator, and even a few games that you’ll unlock. You can also keep track of your restaurant's finances or how well your farm is producing its harvest.
By upgrading Dave, you’ll be able to contend with a lot more of the dangers that lurk down in the depths. The Blue Hole is separated into various tiers based on the depth, with additional areas that will require vast upgrades to Dave’s scuba suit. Most of these upgrades come via the story where you’ll have two key characters tending to those upgrades; Weaponsmith and Anime specialist Duff and Dr. Bacon the Archeologist.
Most of the interaction with these two occurs between story moments as you’ll require something to dive deeper or tend to obstacles in your way. Duff will require you to track down a lost shipment to gain his trust, a delayed package featuring an anime statue to add to his collection. Dr. Bacon is easily the most present character as he is heavily involved in the overall story of what Dave finds in the depths below. The way that these two are connected to certain parts of the story were some of my favorite moments, especially all the wild cutscenes featuring Duff and his anime obsession.
Another character you’ll interact with is Ellie, a biology student who will help Dave with a few quests, as well as being part of the Ecowatcher app that keeps track of certain challenges Dave can complete, such as researching starfish or collecting clams. Then you also have Sato, a character inspired by Ash Ketchum who aids in helping Dave build his Marinca card collection, often obsessed with how Dave ends up finding such rare cards after defeating bosses. Picking up the last few characters are Otto, a man who will tend to your farm, as well as Udo, a photographer who requests that Dave send her pictures as often as he can.
This cast is used extremely well and often stays in their lane based on the app they pass on to Dave. There are a few others that you’ll meet over the course of the game, such as a few that live in the water, but I’ll leave them for you to discover on your own because that whole area is filled with some pretty fun and interesting characters, shops, and activities.
When it comes to the restaurant, you’ll have the likes of Yoshie, Maki, and Vincent, but that whole section of the game is really designed around Bancho, the chef, and the overall face of the restaurant. His passion for food and flavor is told across multiple stories and characters as he attempts to get everyone out of their cooking comfort zone to try new flavors and dishes. These moments are littered with extremely well-animated moments and characters that bring just as much life to the game as the flavors he prepares at his station.
Despite the wealth of personalities present here, Dave himself is a pretty fun character on his own. He is constantly told what to do by certain characters and often goes along with it simply because he knows it is the right thing to do. Much of his gimmick is that he is talked over constantly or that he is a vessel for other characters to get their moment. While this could have made Dave an uninteresting and bland character in the hands of another developer, Mintrocket pulls it off and allows Dave to often have his moment when he really needs it.
Now, the restaurant part of Dave the Diver works pretty much like you’d imagine. Before each shift, you’ll ensure you have a full crew fully trained and ready, with a few spots available to hire new talent. You’ll also need to prep your menu for the night. Dishes can be upgraded, enhanced, and swapped out as well as having different costs to make for a good haul at the end of the night. You can use that haul in all manner of ways to upgrade Dave, but you can also purchase a new look for the place, upgrade the chairs, speaker, and all various flourishes in all sorts of decor.
When you are ready to start your shift, customers will flock in, requesting their dish or beverage of choice. You’ll only have one beverage option to start as you’ll soon be awarded the beer fridge. You’ll fill these by pouring the specific liquid into the glass and hitting a certain fill line. Meals are more straightforward as you’ll get the finished meal from Bancho and then deliver it to the customer that shares its icon. Your staff with either help with cooking or tending to your customers, assisting you, or dealing with the crowds on their own, it’s really up to you on how you want to interact with this element of the game. You’ll also need to tend to the wasabi at the far right, filling it so that Bancho and prep each dish. You’ll also need to tend to empty dishes so that there are free stations for the customers to sit down at. While it can be a tad hectic, there is still a very peaceful flow to the whole experience.
While the restaurant and the diving are very separate entities, they both contain that same flow. One minute it's calm and you take in your surroundings, and the next you are fighting for your life as the chaos erupts all around you. And, given the very enjoyable music and pixel aesthetic, this game can sort of be what you want of it, seeking out those calm moments or diving full into that chaos.
Even when I would have a timer to procure certain ingredients for a dish, or even just needing a single item to take with me back to the restaurant, I would find myself lost in the deep blue, grabbing scraps of iron, wood, or the weapon blueprints I’d find in the odd chest or two. Tracking down new fish became an obsession, upgrading my gear and weapons to combat sharks became a necessity, and every last second of it was just damn fun, even if again, the shooting can feel a tad restrictive. And when I was done with sea, or ran out of air and had to use the emergency escape pod to head back to the surface, I knew that that “run” wasn’t done yet as I’d either dive back into the water or pass the time and tend to the sushi bar, eager to put all those ingredients to use and maybe learn a new recipe or two. Nearly everything this game offered kept me coming back for hours on end.
From the smallest fish to the largest creature, the pixelated charm of Dave the Diver isn’t really that uncommon from most indie efforts but nonetheless was impressive at how well it let its cast emote when their faces are all but six pixels at most. Still, Dave the Diver and all its simplistic glory constantly won me over with its vibrant use of color and its superb design, especially when you find a certain place to visit. Combine that with some ingenious boss designs and its joyful soundtrack, and Dave the Diver just constantly impresses time and time again.
Dave the Diver truly surprised me. I had heard the praise it was getting, the amount of content offered for its price, and honestly, despite sinking over 30 hours into it, I still have a ton of requests and tasks being asked of me, even after wrapping up its storyline. The fusion of its diving and dining systems work so well together, offering up very different experiences that coalesce into one superb package. Dave the Diver is charming, adventurous, and a perfect example of a game that has fun at its first ingredient.
Developer - Mintrocket. Publisher - Mintrocket. Released - June 28th, 2023. Available On - Windows. Nintendo Switch version available later this year. Rated - (N/A) - Rating Pending. Platform Reviewed - Steam. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.